The Vital Message | Page 7

not easily shed; but reading many authentic spirit communications one finds that the idea
of redemption is hardly ever spoken of, while that of example and influence is for ever
insisted upon. In them Christ is the highest spirit known, the son of God, as we all are,
but nearer to God, and therefore in a more particular sense His son. He does not, save in
most rare and special cases, meet us when we die. Since souls pass over, night and day, at
the rate of about 100 a minute, this would seem self-evident. After a time we may be
admitted to His presence, to find a most tender, sympathetic and helpful comrade and
guide, whose spirit influences all things even when His bodily presence is not visible.
This is the general teaching of the other world communications concerning Christ, the
gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods ever over that world which, in all its
many spheres, is His special care. Before passing to the new revelation, its certain proofs
and its definite teaching, let us hark back for a moment upon the two points which have
already been treated. They are not absolutely vital points. The fresh developments can go
on and conquer the world without them. There can be no sudden change in the ancient
routine of our religious habits, nor is it possible to conceive that a congress of theologians
could take so heroic a step as to tear the Bible in twain, laying one half upon the shelf and
one upon the table. Neither is it to be expected that any formal pronouncements could
ever be made that the churches have all laid the wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ.
Moral courage will not rise to such a height. But with the spiritual quickening and the
greater earnestness which will have their roots in this bloody passion of mankind, many
will perceive what is reasonable and true, so that even if the Old Testament should
remain, like some obsolete appendix in the animal frame, to mark a lower stage through

which development has passed, it will more and more be recognised as a document which
has lost all validity and which should no longer be allowed to influence human conduct,
save by way of pointing out much which we may avoid. So also with the teaching of
Christ, the mystical portions may fade gently away, as the grosser views of eternal
punishment have faded within our own lifetime, so that while mankind is hardly aware of
the change the heresy of today will become the commonplace of tomorrow. These things
will adjust themselves in God's own time. What is, however, both new and vital are those
fresh developments which will now be discussed. In them may be found the signs of how
the dry bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be quickened with the breath of
life. With the actual certainty of a definite life after death, and a sure sense of
responsibility for our own spiritual development, a responsibility which cannot be put
upon any other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by each individual for
himself, there will come the greatest reinforcement of morality which the human race has
ever known. We are on the verge of it now, but our descendants will look upon the past
century as the culmination of the dark ages when man lost his trust in God, and was so
engrossed in his temporary earth life that he lost all sense of spiritual reality.


CHAPTER II
THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT
Some sixty years ago that acute thinker Lord Brougham remarked that in the clear sky of
scepticism he saw only one small cloud drifting up and that was Modern Spiritualism. It
was a curiously inverted simile, for one would surely have expected him to say that in the
drifting clouds of scepticism he saw one patch of clear sky, but at least it showed how
conscious he was of the coming importance of the movement. Ruskin, too, an equally
agile mind, said that his assurance of immortality depended upon the observed facts of
Spiritualism. Scores, and indeed hundreds, of famous names could be quoted who have
subscribed the same statement, and whose support would dignify any cause upon earth.
They are the higher peaks who have been the first to catch the light, but the dawn will
spread until none are too lowly to share it. Let us turn, therefore, and inspect this
movement which is most certainly destined to revolutionise human thought and action as
none other has done within the Christian era. We shall look at it both in its strength and in
its weakness, for where one is dealing with what one knows to be true one